This morning let’s not be just ‘hearers’ of the Word, but ‘doers
of the word. Take some time at lunch, dinner, or bedtime to DIG
DEEPER into the today’s lesson and story. Take a few moments
to apply today’s lesson to our lives.
ASK MYSELF…challenging questions for the heart:
1. Did you answer the question on the reserve side of this handout
where it asked, ‘what has God spoken to your heart or asked
you to do?’ If you haven’t take some time to answer that
question now. If you have answered the question, what excuses
have you made concerning this?
2. Consider the excuses you have made or presently make. How
do you think God would answer your particular excuses?
3. What excuses are born out of your sense of readiness or
capability vs. comfort and apathy? Take a few moments to
consider these and lay any excuse before God.
4. Take a moment to pray and say ‘YES’ to God.
FOR THE FAMILY…challenging questions for family life:
1. Discuss the scripture covered today and the basic excuses each
young man made to the Lord. Especially focus on the excuse of
being ‘too young’ with your children.
2. Read 1 Timothy 4:12 together and discuss its implications.
3. Pray together as a family.
Today’s Service
January 26th, 2014
Famous Excuses of the Bible
Gideon & Jeremiah
Part 4 | “Two Buts”
Brian Stanley
WHY WE MAKE EXCUSES:
1. To protect ourselves emotionally
2. To justify our present condition
3. To avoid something difficult
God can use-us when we drop the excuses.
Judges 6:11-15 (NLT) 11 Then the angel of the LORD came and sat beneath the
great tree at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash of the clan of Abiezer. Gideon
son of Joash was threshing wheat at the bottom of a winepress to hide the
grain from the Midianites.12 The angel of the LORD appeared to him and said,
“Mighty hero, the LORD is with you!” 13 “Sir,” Gideon replied, “if the LORD is with
us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all the miracles our
ancestors told us about? Didn’t they say, ‘The LORD brought us up out of
Egypt’? But now the LORD has abandoned us and handed us over to the
Midianites.” 14 Then the LORD turned to him and said, “Go with the strength you
have, and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you!”
15
“But Lord,” Gideon replied, “how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest
in the whole tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least in my entire family!”
16
The LORD said to him, “I will be with you. And you will destroy the Midianites
as if you were fighting against one man.”
Jeremiah 1:4-6 (NLT) 4 The Lord gave me this message:
5
6
7
“I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb.
Before you were born I set you apart
and appointed you as my prophet to the nations.”
“O Sovereign Lord,” I said, “I can’t speak for you! I’m too young!”
The Lord replied, “Don’t say, ‘I’m too young,’ for you must go wherever I send
you and say whatever I tell you. 8 And don’t be afraid of the people, for I will be
with you and will protect you. I, the Lord, have spoken!” 9 Then the Lord
reached out and touched my mouth and said,
“Look, I have put my words in your mouth! 10 Today I appoint you to stand up
against nations and kingdoms. Some you must uproot and tear down, destroy
and overthrow. Others you must build up and plant.”
GIDEON & JEREMIAH’S EXCUSES SUMMARIZED:
1. I am not _________.
2. I do not have what it __________.
1 Timothy 4:12 (NIV) 12 Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are
young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in
faith and in purity.
God tends to ____ in us what we cannot see for __________.
What has God spoken to your heart or asked you to do?
(What is the thing where you have said to God or someone of influence in your life, ‘I am
not ready’ or ‘I simply am not equipped to do that right now’?)
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The only thing standing between you and God using you for
something greater: _____!
Whom God ______, God also _______.
“Go with the strength you have… I am sending you! I will be with you. I will be
with you and will protect you. I, the Lord, have spoken! Today I appoint you.”
NOTES:
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